POSTMODERNISM

1
POSTMODERNISM

• Del Sal Beatrice
• Classe 5 A
• A.S. 2010/2011

2
CONTEXT

• After World War II
• Mass protests against mass culture,
  materialism, consumerism
• womens inequality
• blacks segregation and racism

• Review of Existentialism (a philosophical theory
  or approach that emphasizes the existence
  of the individual person as a free and
  responsible agent determining their own
  development through acts of the will)
• Flourishing of Neorealism.

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From MODERNISM to POSTMODERNISM
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MODERNISM

• When? First half of the 20ieth century
  (1910-1930)
• Characteristics
• Reason is sufficient to understand the nature of
  life and man
• Emphasis of impressionisms and subjectivity in
  writing
• A tendency towards self-consciousness
• Modern Science (Einsteins theory of relativity)
• Universal truths

5
POSTMODERNISM

• When? Second half of the 20ieth century
• Characteristics
• It is still alive ? it can not be defined
• It has been growing from Modernism (the return
  and review of Modernism)
• It emphasizes parody, chaos, irony and pastiche
• It does not believe in one single truth
• It favors reflexivity and self-consciousness,
  discontinuity and ambiguity
• Texts are the product of intertextuality

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DECONSTRUCTION of the Subject

• Postmodernism adopts a
• post-structuralist and deconstructive method
• The character/the subject has got a multi-faceted
  identity
• Any character/subject adapts her/his identity
  according to the situation he is living.

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CAPITALISM

• Frederic Jameson ?
• It provides a connection between Modernism and
  Postmodernism,
• WHAT IS CAPITALISM?
• An economic and political system ? business
  belongs mostly to private owners, not to the
  government.
• Modermism and Postmodernism go together with some
  stages of capitalism
• Technological development and Realism
• Electric and internal combustion motors and
  Modernism
• Nuclear and electronic technologies and
  Postmodernism